From a seat in the rear of the room, observe your students and take notes on what they are doing while the teacher is presenting in the front of the room, while they are supposed to be doing seatwork, and/or when they are working in the lab. Look closely at each student for a range of behaviors, and resist the temptation on only see what you expect. Note especially what is happening furthest from the teacher. What strategies are used by your teacher to encourage students to attend and engage?
How important is student engagement to your view of how you will teach? What strategies will you employ to encourage student engagement?
Observations:
Today in Mrs. Parsons class the students shared mixed levels of engagment. Todays lesson was review for their common assesment (all ninth grade eps classes will take this same test), which is a large part of there grade. As expected some students took it very serisouly and others not so serisouly. I was surprised to see a few students who just didnt seem to care at all. I knew that there are students who dont take school vary serisous, but i always assumed that those studnets were the troublemakers, and with few exceptions these students were not trying to gain attention or to disrupt the class, they just didn't want anything to do with the class.
Class opened with a brief teacher lead review of some of the key areas and reminders, and then a worksheet similar to the test was handed out, and the students were supposed to work on it quietly while Mrs. Parson and I went around to assist and check on there work. There were of course students who needed to be redirected, but most students seemed to see the importance of the test and put at least some effort into it. Many students had a decent amount of trouble with the work.
Reflections:
Today's observation was both what i expected and an eye opener at the same time. It was not too long ago that i was a High School student myself, and so i certainly didn't expect a utopia of all students dillagently working on there assignments. I was surprised to see who was making the noise though. Many of the higher level students quickly finished and were then being very distracting to other students. This showed me the importance of keeping these students challenged, and the challenge of doing that everyday.
Another surprise was that many of the students who didn't seem to care were not those who i would have claled the bad kids. They were for the most part quiet, and were not disrupting others. They simply didn't seem to care at all about the work and their grade. I was a bit confused at how you could improve there morale, but figured that at this point, only days before the test that the students who were trying and needed help where the ones to give my attention to. After all the students not doing the work were not being a behavioriall problem
The last thing that surprised me from the days observation, was the difference in the students abilities. Most of the test was very simple material presented at a basic understanding level(mostly DOK 1) and has been gone over in class multiple times, yet many students were struggling. This reminded me of the importnace of present information many times in a variety of modalities.
Class Topic: Test Review
Grade: 9 EPS
Observed by: Chris Liberti
How important is student engagement to your view of how you will teach? What strategies will you employ to encourage student engagement?
Observations:
Today in Mrs. Parsons class the students shared mixed levels of engagment. Todays lesson was review for their common assesment (all ninth grade eps classes will take this same test), which is a large part of there grade. As expected some students took it very serisouly and others not so serisouly. I was surprised to see a few students who just didnt seem to care at all. I knew that there are students who dont take school vary serisous, but i always assumed that those studnets were the troublemakers, and with few exceptions these students were not trying to gain attention or to disrupt the class, they just didn't want anything to do with the class.Class opened with a brief teacher lead review of some of the key areas and reminders, and then a worksheet similar to the test was handed out, and the students were supposed to work on it quietly while Mrs. Parson and I went around to assist and check on there work. There were of course students who needed to be redirected, but most students seemed to see the importance of the test and put at least some effort into it. Many students had a decent amount of trouble with the work.
Reflections:
Today's observation was both what i expected and an eye opener at the same time. It was not too long ago that i was a High School student myself, and so i certainly didn't expect a utopia of all students dillagently working on there assignments. I was surprised to see who was making the noise though. Many of the higher level students quickly finished and were then being very distracting to other students. This showed me the importance of keeping these students challenged, and the challenge of doing that everyday.Another surprise was that many of the students who didn't seem to care were not those who i would have claled the bad kids. They were for the most part quiet, and were not disrupting others. They simply didn't seem to care at all about the work and their grade. I was a bit confused at how you could improve there morale, but figured that at this point, only days before the test that the students who were trying and needed help where the ones to give my attention to. After all the students not doing the work were not being a behavioriall problem
The last thing that surprised me from the days observation, was the difference in the students abilities. Most of the test was very simple material presented at a basic understanding level(mostly DOK 1) and has been gone over in class multiple times, yet many students were struggling. This reminded me of the importnace of present information many times in a variety of modalities.
Class Topic: Test Review
Grade: 9 EPS
Observed by: Chris Liberti